Even if we are hiding on a rock, it was difficult not to notice the release of the James Webb Space Telescope images this week. I “interrupted normal programming” to create a podcast about that. Look in the usual feeds or, my preferred way is to follow this link here
to what I think is the best version of that podcast because it has not only all the images and my talking head explaining aspects of them but also a musical score. I like those kinds of videos - I know many do not for whatever reason (they don’t like the music or the music is distracting or … well human beings are very diverse) - so there is also a version of the video, linked to in the description and on my channel very easy to find that is without the music underneath.
I interrupted usual programming again to make a response video. I haven’t made one of these for a while: I’ve done this for podcasts put out by Yaron Brook and Sam Harris before and some others so it’s a not unknown for me to do this, but it is rare. Sam’s episode of his podcast “Making Sense” #288 was an interview with author Peter Zeihan about his book titled “The End of the World is just the beginning”. The title of Sam’s podcast is “The End of Global Order” and basically the first words Sam speaks in the main introduction to the podcast proper is “Today we are speaking about the end of the world”. As I explain in my reaction video this is when I began literally laughing out loud as I walked along the streets of my local neighbourhood listening to this. What followed was blow after blow of prophetic warnings descending into ever deeper wells of pessimism. Like a car wreck - I could not look away and so once I finished the podcast I made a reaction video. I think it was somewhat funny. It’s here:
as well as being available across all the usual podcast platforms.
My output recently has been rather higher than usual and so I worry about the risk of over saturation. I am also working on another project to investigate ways we can help find new modes of funding in fundamental physics that is taking up my time - so I think this week I will slow down just a little to organise my thoughts and become inspired rather than trying to keep up a frenetic pace. Well, it’s not frenetic - I have a lot of fun doing it all, of course, and wouldn’t be doing anything else - but Sam’s latest podcast - a nadir, I feel, of pessimism - means I have to really think on (we all do!) - how to counter this prevailing, dominant culture of pessimism. What can I be doing differently other than repeating myself?
All that said next week I hope to have out (long promised but put off because of those “interruptions” I mentioned above!) my episode all on Steven Pinker’s book “Rationality” Chapter 5 “Beliefs and Evidence” and subtitled “Bayesian Reasoning”. It’s a deep dive into that chapter and unlike my explorations of those other books, this is becoming more and more a critique. Yes, there are some real gems in Pinker’s work - there are correct things he says about what rationality is and how to reason. But this chapter is not much that. This is wide of the mark and so filled with misconceptions, I had to take my time to decide what to unpack, object to and how. But look for that in the usual podcast feeds.
Sometime after that, already recorded but not yet edited is the beginning of the discussion of Chapter 7 of “The Fabric of Reality” which is titled “A Conversation about Justificationism (or David and the Crypto-inductivist”). No, a crypto-inductivist is not someone who thinks blockchain can be justified using Bayesian reasoning. Boom-tish. But there is a nice parallel between Pinker’s chapter and Deutsch’s chapter I am discussing. The misconceptions versus the best explanation of how reasoning works. So look for that likely later in the week.
Between all of those podcasts and my livestreams (I’m about to commence another one - those too can all be found on my YouTube channel) - and this Substack, I am sometimes confused about what I’m up to. But I know that this is it for the moment: until next time.
Pictures and Prophesies